European Journal of Science and Theology, October 2019, Vol.15, No.5, 49-66 _______________________________________________________________________ ENGLISH RELIGIOUS SLANG IN SEARCH OF LINGUISTIC IDENTITY Dmytro Borys 1* and Olena Garmash 2 1 National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, Heroiv Oborony St. 15, 03041, Kyiv, Ukraine 2 Bogdan Khmelnitsky Melitopol State Pedagogical University, Hetmanska St. 20, 72300, Melitopol, Ukraine (Received 10 March 2019, revised 21 June 2019) Abstract The research is concerned with English religious slang, i.e. substandard, familiar, and informal vocabulary which is employed by persons identifying themselves as believers with reference to their religious affiliation. The historical precursor of religious slang studies was the empirical evidence collected by W. Tyndale, J.C. Hotten, J. Redding Ware, and E. Partridge in the 16 th -20 th centuries. As the core notion of this article, religious slang is differentiated from similar linguistic phenomena, namely general religious vocabulary and religion-related slang. The elaboration of a typology of religious slang allows for delimiting its three major types: Christian slang, Judaist slang, and Muslim slang. Christian slang is by far best represented, which is due to the worldwide spread of Christianity, the multiplicity of its denominations, and the longevity of the proselytizing tradition. Christian slang discloses 10 linguistic trends reflecting the on-going process of neologization of the English religious vocabulary, characterized by the emergence and synthesis of new notions, analogical and humorous word-formation, semantic change, and wordplay. Judaist slang contains a much more limited amount of empirical evidence, which has to do with its marked fixation on tradition, both linguistically and culturally, and manifests itself within two trends. Muslim slang is least represented among the three types, which results from the intrinsic conservatism of Islam. Keywords: religious, religion-related, Christian, Judaist, Muslim 1. Introduction Religious is arguably the oldest discourse, with texts written thousands of years ago still being regularly addressed and novel interpretations proposed. Yet, language perpetually evolves, and so do diverse discourses. This evolution invariably leads to the synthesis of new linguistic phenomena which have yet to be investigated on both theoretical and empirical planes. It is at the intersection of disciplines that the bulk of like innovations emerge. And such is the case of religious slang, a relatively recent phenomenon which has not been approached * E-mail: dmytroborys@ukr.net